Gene Mason has worked with large churches as an IT professional for 35 years and has worked with Higher Ground Managed IT for 20 years in his various roles. Gene is now the Vice President of Operations at Leadership Ministries, a non-profit organization that leads business people in weekly groups. Leadership Ministries currently has five locations and plans to expand to seven.
Updating Systems
When Gene started at Leadership Ministries, they already had an IT consultant. But after about three months, Gene knew they needed a change, so he reached out to Higher Ground again. and their partnership with Higher Ground began.
Their staff of six had desktop computers when he first joined Leadership Ministries, and now with Higher Ground’s help, they have laptops and store everything in the cloud and use Microsoft 365 to write and share documents. Leadership Ministries also adopted a phone system allowing them to use an app on their cell phones and access a uniform contact program. These changes allowed Gene and his team to have the option of working from home which was not previously possible.
Leadership Ministries facilitates weekly meetings where 75-100 members still connect online in a post-pandemic world, so they needed a way to stream their meetings while allowing people to meet in person at each location. Higher Ground created a streaming technology package for online members and hybrid in-person meetings through Zoom, which will also be used when they add additional locations.
“So I’ve got file storage, email, a phone system, a streaming system, web, online payments, and this is my little organization now. Well, I don’t know how that works. And nor does it make any sense for me to learn it all.” – Gene Mason, Vice President of Operations
Set It and Forget It
Higher Ground implemented all their systems but also maintains them so Gene and his staff didn’t need in-depth training nor do they need to worry about troubleshooting issues. Higher Ground allows you to set everything up and then walk away. Leadership Ministries’ systems are monitored remotely and Higher Ground is always available if they have issues or questions.
“Get somebody in there; that’s good. Set it up, and only look at it if there’s an issue. Higher Ground does that well: set it and forget it because they put the right gear in and can monitor it remotely.” Gene Mason – Vice President of Operations
Stewardship of Funds
For Gene, the decision to use Higher Ground instead of hiring a full-time IT professional or continuing with their IT consultant was an easy choice because by doing so, he is a better steward of their budget and the resources available. Typically the recommended ratio for hiring a full-time IT staff member is 1:70, so one IT person per 70 full-time equivalent staff members. With their staff of 6 people, hiring someone full-time to address a few issues that may pop up was not a good financial decision. Higher Ground costs a fraction of what a full-time IT person would cost a typical church or non-profit.
“You’ve got stewardship of people and stewardship of knowledge. That’s the two big things that Higher Ground does for me; it’s much better stewardship.” – Gene Mason, Vice President of Operations
Higher Ground Managed IT allowed Leadership Ministries to transform their IT infrastructure to meet their needs while being good stewards of their donations and resources. To learn more about Higher Ground’s services, click here.
To learn more about Leadership Ministries, click here.
